Synopsis

A beautiful nation, prospering since ancient times, Japan is now known as the Anime Kingdom. There are more than just humans living there; animes truly do exist in Japan. Past the Fairy Ring, to the world of fairies, live anime-chans. There's a Fairy Ring in your town, too. Here. And there. Even in Harajuku. Maybe even in the Ashigara mountains. By some chance, we'll open that door. And we might get to meet the anime-chans. This is the land where you get to meet anime-chans.

Background

The series of shorts featuring super-deformed characters premiered with the Anime-chan ni Kaeru Kuni television variety program on Japan's Tokyo MX1 channel. A 3D CG anime project adapting Oso-teki Kinoko Gijinka Zukan (oso's Kinoko Personification Pictorial Book), a picture book that imagines mushroom varieties as girls, was announced under the title Mori no Yousei Kinoko no Musume (Forest Fairies: Mushroom Girls) for a 2017 premiere. The cast introduced the project and its characters on Anime-chan ni Kaeru Kuni in October.

In their insatiable hunger for new content, CrunchyRoll will occasionally license series that seem to have no business being seen outside of whatever dark corner of Japan they came from. Forest Fairy Five (FFF) is the latest of those shows, an attempt at a CGI children's show that, on first appearances, is a confused mess of ugly visuals, bad sound quality & no clear sense of what it's meant to be about or who it's for.

First, some back story. In 2011 Sōta Sugahara's & studio Bouncy's GDGD Fairies first aired, a CGI show about fairy idols that looked like a kids show, but
was actually a surreal mixture of character breaking improv comedy & weird animation. It was apparently popular enough to get a second season & a film in 2014. Said film was produced with help from another studio, Rokujigen (6D), who have now gone on to make their own CGI show about fairy idols that looks like a surreal mixture of character breaking improv comedy & weird animation, but is actually a kids show.

To further confuse matters, the first three minutes of FFF are effectively two separate introductions that contradict each other. The first introduces a “beautiful & prosperous since ancient times” Japan where anime has become real & we're off to the place where you can meet “anime-chan's.” But straight after that is another introduction that presents the show as occurring in the mushroom fairy kingdom where the main characters are trying to protect the real world from the evil poison mushroom army. Neither really has much to do with the show itself, but it means that the first three minutes of every episode contribute nothing.

Not that you'll probably bother. The first episodes of FFF are a mess, a show that looks & sounds terrible & doesn't seem to know what it is. Ostensibly based on a children's illustration book, FFF stars a quintet of mushroom fairies who spend their days hanging about & sometimes checking in on the real world through a fairy circle. They're supposed to be eight years old, but given that the voice actresses don't put on voices, they certainly don't sound like it. It makes the exchanges with narrator JoJo feel odd & condescending, as an adult man talks to the fairies like they're children, only for them to talk back like teenagers.

Nor is it clear quite what FFF wants to be. Its mix of scripted interactions & improv don't seem connected & it almost feels like the VAs aren't quite sure what to do. The first couple episodes introduce the fairies to sites in Harajuku in such a way that it's almost like they're addressing foreign tourists. After a couple of episodes a new segment about some bird looking characters is introduced who seem to have nothing to do with the fairies. In all the opening episodes give the impression that the producers aren't sure exactly what they're trying to do with their show.

These problems are only exacerbated by the presentation problems. The CGI looks like captured footage from a Chinese fantasy MMO, with glitchy animation loops & a virtual camera that doesn't know where it's going. There is also an excessive amount of Bloom, to the point that the fairies often resemble the sheep from TES IV: Oblivion. It makes for an ugly introduction to the series, not helped by the problems with the voice actresses microphones. Despite the improv skits, it never feels like they were recorded in the same room & the sound quality varies from fine to not fit for Youtube. The only thing that doesn't seem to have problems is the music, which sounds like it might have been licensed from a jRPG music library rather than commissioned for the show. It's hard to imagine how the series could have made a worst first impression.

But having said all that, as the series progresses it starts to pull itself together. The technical issues don't go away, but the sound & visual problems start being cleaned up & the camera is brought back under control. Episodes start sticking to a single theme, for instance one character forgetting how to say “ka” & all the problems that causes. The fairy portal is also re-purposed so that it now contains a recurring woman who introduces the fairies to various professions. Oh & there's a guest lady in one episode who's high on schrooms. Drug references in children's TV shows are always welcome.

This change over it's runtime means that the overall impression of FFF is of a series where the production team were having to learn on the fly. There are lots of things, major & minor, that suggest it's a show that had very little pre-production time to set up & learn the production tools & develop a concrete concept for the series. By the end, it has ironed out a lot of the creases, to the point that it now is a decent enough short show for young children. But the issues at the start leave this first season of FFF feeling like one of those well-intended but misguided no-budget animations for kids you find on Amazon Prime. I recommend Bubble Bubble Meows. It'll change your life.

That being said, this is a kids anime. A FUCKING KIDS ANIME. Would you expect an anime targeted at kids to be this bad? No. I know people always despise Bakugan Little Brawlers, but I haven't seen that. I know people love and people hate Pokémon. But Forest Fairy Five, this anime is complete shit. I always thought of the 2001 film, Freddy Got Fingered, to be the worst thing I've seen in my lifetime. Then Hand Shakers came along, and now: this came along. Just… avoid watching this. The plot itself is abysmal. Seriously, Japan
turns into Anime Kingdom? What the fuck? I mean, I know anime comes from Japan and all but this anime could just be called an anime for weebish kids. Cause Japan turning into Anime Kingdom is certainly not weebish. Okay, that last sentence was obviously sarcasm. Anyways, the animation is the worst thing I've looked at in the history of animation. The characters aren't developed. The animation is as bad as the animation from abysmal movies such as Foodfight! and Where the Dead Go to Die. In my lifetime, I've seen some really bad shit in and outside anime, let's go over that: Freddy Got Fingered, Where the Dead Go to Die, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Hand Shakers, Black Bullet, Big Order, Foodfight!, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Troll 2, Jaws: The Revenge, Tentacolino, Doogal, Ratatoing, The Little Panda Fighter, A Car's Life and lots of others.

Okay, that's the end of this review. I give Forest Fairy Five a 1/10 (I'd give it a 0/10 if MAL had that score)

Wow that was terrible.I swear this was made in like a 2006 WoW server or something. There were parts of the intro where you could see the end of their 3D rendered world. The draw distance in these renders is only a few feet from where they placed the camera. This was some of the worse 3D animation I have ever seen, and I've seen Food Fight. The intro music was okay. The voice actors sounded like they definitely recorded from home with no pop filters on their microphones. All in all this was the worst thing I've ever seen on Crunchyroll.

I have watched episodes 6, 7 and 8. I am writing this review because i feel that this anime doesn't deserve to be rated 1/10.

This anime is targeted at pre-school kids. As proof, go and watch episode 7. Imagine watching Teletubbies and rating it 1/10, that is similar to what you guys are doing.

The story, art, sound, character are all fairly good when considering the intended target audience. I'm giving a 7 for enjoyment due to the occasional comedy and also that this anime is done much better than an average anime radio show.

While i try to point out the good qualities of this anime
and argue that this anime should be rated higher, i definitely agree that this anime is not for most of us. I suggest that only those who listens to anime radio to give this a try. And please don't expect too much.